CONNECTICUT FACING CRITICAL CHOICES ON WELFARE, POLICY EXPERT SAYS

LISA CHEDEKEL; Courant Staff WriterTHE HARTFORD COURANT

Sweeping federal welfare changes still leave Connecticut with critical choices to make about its commitment to helping poor families, and the 1997 state legislative session will test that commitment, a national expert on social policy said Thursday.

"The decisions about what happens to poor families and children in Connecticut now rest with you -- with your governor, your legislators, all of you," said Cindy Mann, senior policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington organization that studies government programs affecting low- and middle-income people.

"There is tremendous flexibility in how the state will spend its [federal] block grant," she told more than 170 human services providers and legislators who crammed a meeting room in the Legislative Office Building. "Don't let the federal law define where you go, or what you think ought to be done."

Mann was the featured speaker Thursday at two community meetings, in Hartford and New London, on state and federal welfare reform. Two more forums will be held today, in Bridgeport and New Haven. The meetings are sponsored by four statewide human services agencies.

Connecticut's welfare policy limits recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children to 21 months of cash benefits -- a stricter time limit than the five-year cap allowed under recent federal welfare changes. Mann said the reforms so far still leave Connecticut with some big decisions, such as whether to waive time limits on food stamps, provide assistance to low-wage working families, or expand child care and Medicaid.

Under the federal changes, the state will receive a flat block grant for its welfare program. The state will have the flexibility of significantly reducing its own spending on welfare without risking the loss of that federal money, Mann said.

Human services advocates plan to push for changes to the state's welfare policy in the next legislative session, said Janet Van Tassel, executive director of the Legal Assistance Resource Center of Connecticut. Among the proposed changes are providing money for child care and transportation for welfare recipients enrolled in education or training programs; revamping what Van Tassel called the state's "one- size-fits-all" job-readiness program; and extending cash assistance, for up to five years, to working families with earnings below the federal poverty level.

Only a small percentage of state welfare clients who have found jobs in the past year are working full time, Van Tassel said.

"The next legislative session is going to be brutal," she told the group, saying she expects the governor to propose deep spending cuts to fund reductions in the gasoline and income taxes. She urged human services advocates to make welfare reform part of a broader debate about the state's spending priorities.

"We need to make the same kind of investment in Connecticut families as we've made in promoting Connecticut business," she said.

The forums are sponsored by the Connecticut Association for Human Services, the Connecticut Anti- Hunger Coalition, the Legal Assistance Resource Center and the Connecticut Alliance for Basic Human Needs.